Hamilton buoyed by practice pace

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The 23-year-old bounced back in the second of the 90-minute periods after Ferrari had made all the running, a late effort of one minute 35.055secs enough to dislodge Felipe Massa from the top of the timesheets.

"I was pretty happy with it," he said. The car was consistent and had good overall speed. I had a slight problem with the car at the end of the morning session but it didn't really affect our programme."

With a changeable forecast casting uncertainty over Sunday's 56-lap encounter, Formula One could see its first wet race of the season without electronic driver aids.

And Hamilton admitted difficult conditions could see a similar outcome to the opening race of the season in Australia, where a lack of traction control contributed to only seven cars crossing the line.

"The first time we had wet track was at Jerez and I think everybody was experiencing some problems," he said.

"The last time was at Barcelona and BMW seemed to have a very good car in the wet.

"They were not quite as strong as us I think, but Red Bull were quick also. Ferrari weren't there but I can only assume they were quick.

"It will be tough but I think here, it's slightly different wet race. Elsewhere, it can be quite cold and as soon as you have that, you lose the heat in tyres. Here, it will be wet but still hot so the tyres will still be quite warm."